You and me both, I remember when Clinton had the molds destoryed back in 1996 and leaving the NAVY with the pisspoor Hornet.

My understanding was that the person responsible for ordering the destruction of the F-14 production tooling was then-SecDef Dick Cheney (during Bush41's term). Cheney was ticked that the NY CongDel kept getting funding for new F-14s (F-14B rebuilds, F-14D re and new builds) added back in to the defense budget so as soon as there was a year where they weren't able to he had the tooling scrapped almost immediately.

What Clinton did in this regards was kill the NATF/F-22 naval derivative (it went through several variations and names, including A/FX) that was supposed to replace the F-14. Clinton also line-item vetoed the supplemental funding that had brought two SR-71s back into service (after which, iirc, the Blackbird tooling was promptly scrapped and the aircraft's wing spars severed.)